Public Private Families

Download or read book Public and Private Families written by Andrew J. Cherlin and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages. This book was released on 2000 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text examines the family through two lenses - the familiar private family in which we live most of our personal lives, and the public family in which we, as adults, deal with broader societal issues such as raising the next generation and the care of the elderly. Consequently the selected readings look both at intimate personal concerns, such as whether to marry, as well as societal concerns, such as governmental policies that affect families. The author introduces each chapter, providing helpful lead-ins to the readings that follow. The 32 readings in this edition are comprised of a well-balanced mix of highly accessible selections from the popular press as well as articles from scholarly journals. This reader serves as an excellent companion to other texts in the sociology of marriage and the family and as a useful source of information on its own. It is an excellent supplement to Cherlins text, Public and Private Families: An Introduction. Its 16 chapters, which address contemporary issues such as the history of the family, welfare and welfare reform, divorce and step-parenting are keyed to the 16 chapters in Cherlins text.